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“That” lighting concept

Perth, 3rd January 2010

It’s early Sunday morning and while others are still enjoying their sleep I am using the quiet of the morning to work on a lighting concept for one of our projects as a presentation to the client is due early next week. I think I blogged about the subject before but anyhow the idea of the blog is to talk about issues that relate to us as lighting designers, so the fact that it pops up again obviously means that the subject is a recurrent part of our (my) lighting design life.

From my experience many clients have no “concept” about what goes into creating a lighting concept. They send you a few plan drawings, elevations or if you are lucky an artist impression (what design brief?) and expect you to revert back to them a few days later with a “lighting concept”. Now we all now know that creation is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration, so a concept is often born after a lot of research and thinking. That “a-ha” moment can come suddenly or can remain elusive for quite a while.

But many clients don’t offer us the luxury of time, so the reality is that I find myself often becoming a “practical” lighting designer rather than a “creative” lighting designer. Because of experience I can quickly develop a lighting scheme that works and will satisfy the client…but does it really satisfy me? Is that really the best that can be done? I think we all have that creative “beast” in us and I feel that caging it may softly kill our conceptual skills.